"They want us to go to batteries! We don't have battery content. So let's go to batteries!" [View all]

[Miles Archer]

Trump’s return to MAGA rallies is a flop

https://www.salon.com/2025/12/10/trumps-return-to-maga-rallies-is-a-flop/

And because the president is nothing if not predictable, his speech eventually strayed from the economic gaslighting, quickly devolving into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.

In a particularly baffling moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage despite Pennsylvania having recently secured hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “They want us to go to batteries!” he jeered. “We don’t have battery content. So let’s go to batteries according to these morons that were in our country.”

Things turned more confusing when Trump seemed to forget he had first nominated Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell. “I just heard it could be all four commissioners in the Fed signed by Biden including Too Late, I hear that the autopen may have signed those commissions. If they signed those commissions,” he said, “you can’t use the autopen.”

Moments like these underscored the growing concern about Trump’s cognitive abilities, which are becoming a political issue. We’ve watched him drift asleep in meetings, slur through speeches, wander off stages and misidentify world leaders. His right hand has repeatedly appeared bandaged and bruised. At least once, the side of his face drooped on national television. And for a man who claims to “ace” cognitive tests, it’s curious that he cannot recall whether he sat for an MRI during his second “annual physical” this year. Even his own supporters whisper about whether age is catching up to him.